3D Imaging Cubesat Lidar for Asteroid and Planetary Sciences

NASA is actively pursuing guidance and control light detection and ranging (lidar) systems for upcoming exploration missions including asteroid, comet, planet, and planetary moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Fibertek proposes to develop a scanning 3D imaging photon-counting cubesat lidar capable of topology and rendezvous over ranges from 1 to >100 km range at a fraction of the power, mass, and cost of the Mercury Laser Altimeter. 2U cubesat subsystem that exceeds all topic S1:01 performance requirements. The lidar provides unprecedented range (>100 km), range resolution, (~ 15cm) and 10 degree scanning angle in an ultra low size (10x10x20cm), mass (4kg) and power (14.3W) in a 2U size suitable for Cubesat, Small Sal or Orion sized vehicle. The lidar can support Proximity Operations & Formation Flying in the future with minor hardware changes, software updates. Optical satellite to satellite communications can be added to the lidar in the future under Phase IIE or Phase III support.